New customer protections for poor service come into force
New standards to protect customers who experience poor service from their water company come into force from today (1 October).
Customers in England will now benefit from stronger protections under the additional service standards, which have been added to the Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS) as part of reforms led by the UK Government.
These changes mean households and businesses will automatically receive payments from their water company if they fail to meet new standards including:
- Where a boil water, do not drink water or do not use water notice has been in place for 48 hours or longer
- A water company has failed to read a customer’s water meter within 13 months
- Failure to install a water meter within 8 weeks of a customer requesting one under the optional scheme and where it was possible for one to be fitted
- A water company failing to follow the correct debt recovery process before taking action against a customer
- Failure to provide promised support through the Priority Service Register during an incident or add a customer to the PSR register within 30 days of them making the request
These new measures form part of wider improvements to GSS, which have already led to increased payments for a range of other service failures, including disruption to water supply, sewer flooding and low water pressure. These changes took effect from July 2025 and in most cases the automatic payments have at least doubled from the previous standards.
The changes build on many of the recommendations CCW shared with the UK Government last year as part of our campaign to improve GSS, which had remained largely unchanged since it was introduced over 35 years ago.
Read more about the new standards and payments in our FAQs (opens in new window)
GSS in Wales
The new standards do not apply to customers of water companies in Wales. Welsh Government asked the regulator Ofwat to carry out customer research and a consultation on improvements to the scheme in Wales.